Canon Leonard Doolan
We begin another journey through Lent. Our gospel reading reminds us again, as it does every year, why we set aside these forty days – kali sarakosti – which culminates for us in the Great and Holy Week and the mystery of the cross.
Deacon Christine Saccali
I don’t know if you have heard of the Malvern Hills in central England? The area is famous for its water as well as its beauty but Malvern is where I come from and where my father’s family originated. My dad used to say that the next highest land as you circled the globe on that latitude was the Urals located in the Soviet Union then.
I once saw and interesting clip on television. Someone stood still in a public square and looked upwards, staring into the sky. It wasn’t long until others stopped and gazed upwards, or glanced skyward to see what it was that others were staring at. Maybe I should try it in Syntagma some time.
We are now in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity – always a challenging week in many respects. The Christian church is a kaleidoscope of different expressions.READ MORE
We often expect to see some good films over the Christmas period. I find that a really good film has deep, almost hidden religious themes, and these are enlightening. Maybe not all film directors realize this. Something new about faith can be learnt from a good movie. This was in my mind yesterday. Lynne and I had decided to go and see Paddington. It has had great reviews. I thought there could well be something I could learn before preparing my sermon for this morning.
On December 21st 1968 Apollo 8 lifted off for its journey to the moon. Frank Borman was the senior astronaut. As they circled the moon in their tiny space module we were given the most incredible first real pictures of the earth from outer space.
Is 61, 1-4, 8-end; 1 Thess 5, 16-24; John 1, 6-8, 19-28 (Canon LW Doolan)
It is not always a positive thing to be defined by what you are not. There is something of the protest in that type of approach. Protest is something I now have to live with. Being in the centre of Athens, as many of you will know, is a constant series of protests which brings a good deal of disruption in its wake.READ MORE
Our Anglican Lectionary guides us in a particular direction this morning. It would seem we are to consider Wisdom. Not only have we a reading from the Book of Wisdom, but we have, in our second reading, a parable of Our Lord, about the foolishness and wisdom of some virgins.
Wisdom, Sophia, is a powerful theme that runs through the Old Testament scriptures in its own distinctive genre of literature and is developed into the Christian era. A word of wisdom is particularly associated with the desert Abba or Amma. On this Remembrance Sunday I propose that we stay with wisdom as our theme.READ MORE
1 John 3, 1-3; Rev 7, 9-end; Matthew 5, 1-12
I have a confession to make. I am absolutely hopeless sin understanding how to use new technology. I feel not so much like a Luddite, which is like an iconoclast, but more like a dinosaur, which is prehistoric.
I can email, and like to email. My mobile phone can receive my emails as well. This is big step forward for me. I can take pictures on my phone – but I don’t know how to forward them to anyone else, so they just sit there in my photo gallery. I can text with my phone, though my fingers are too clumsy, so I often accidentally send off a message when I’m only half way through it.READ MORE
I have not been in the Peloponnese since 1978. I sailed by ferry from Italy to Patras, and then on to Athens for three weeks study at the British School (of Archaology and Topography). From the School we visited Mycenae, Epidavros, Olympia and Korinth. So after such a long time it is good to be back.
There is a legend, of course, about a monk called St. Regulus, who visited Patras and took possession of some of the bones of St. Andrew and transported them to the east coast of Scotland, giving the name to the town and later the University of St. Andrews. This year the university celebrates its 600th anniversary, and it was my first university. So some little connections!
Isiaiah 25, 1-9; Philippians 4, 1-9; Matt 22, 1-14
Many years ago I was a Team Rector in North East Suffolk. Lynne and I lived in a small market town called Halesworth near to Southwold famous for its Adnams beer, and Adnams is a very good wine supplier as well. I recommend the Adnams ‘Fizz’ which friends from Suffolk used to bring us as a present when we were in Crawley and Cirencester.
Halesworth Team Ministry had its own very well produced church magazine called Team Times. The quality of its production was really only possible because we had a truly wonderful woman called Margaret Deering who sold advertising space to local businesses. READ MORE